Global cyber-attack: Google researcher found evidence leading to Pyongyang

A Google researcher found a connection between the system used to carry out the worldwide cyber-attack that occurred this past weekend and the system utilized by North Korea to hack on Sony Pictures. Could this be another one of the dictatorship’s provocations?

It seems that the underlying cause of the global cyber-attack is none other than North Korea. Google security researcher Neel Mehta discovered similarities between the code utilized by the Lazarus Group in 2015, the code that North Korea used to hack into Sony Pictures in 2014 and steal hundreds of millions of dollars from a Bangladeshi bank in 2016 and now the 2017 version of the ransomware WannaCry, which was utilized in the most recent cyber-attack.

Up until last night (Monday), the source of WannaCry was unclear, but this new discovery could shed some light onto the mystery. According to the researchers, there is a strong connection between the malware and chances that this is coincidental are slim. If North Korea is in fact responsible for the cyber-attack, which hit more than 200,000 victims in 250 countries, this could be seen as an additional provocation towards the West by the dictatorship.